Eyes on the Street: Timber! San Jose/Guerrero Plaza Gets Tree Stumps

It may be the most dramatic Pavement to Parks implementation yet: at the intersection of San Jose Avenue and Guerrero Street, enormous logs have arrived that will form the backbones of planter beds. The Planning Department's Andres Power provides an update:

Logs that form the backbones of planter beds have all been installed and cut to size. Boards that will connect the logs are being fabricated on site. Dirt and gravel will be brought in over the next few days, and the trees and landscaping will be delivered Thursday morning. Plants will be planted on Thursday and Friday, and possibly, into early next week. A bunch of neighbors will be turning out at 10AM on Sunday to help with planting and painting of the log ends. The roadway surface will be treated the beginning of next week.

By Wednesday of next week, the plaza should be complete. The transformation of the space is already striking. More pictures of the construction after the break.

I love the idea of using cheap/free materials, but this really just looks like trash strewn around after a windstorm.

Mathilde

I agree with Jeremiah. It looks like a very well-intentioned, but unskilled DIY project gone awry. The scale of the tree trunks also dwarf that small patch of land. Flora Grubb. . . . save us!

steve

Give me a break! Or better yet, give the park planners a break! If you bothered to read the text, or look at the pictures, it was obvious the logs were being cut down to size on-site. Why do have to post negative comments, when you haven’t bothered to look more closely at the project? This is so typical of local neighborhood reaction. Hey, bother to go to the planning meetings, bother to look at the architectural drawings, bother to participate, or don’t bother to bore us with your late and contrary comments.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/Jamison Jamison Wieser

Seriously. I’m having trouble visualizing what the end product will look like and I haven’t seen any drawings that were detailed enough to show what this planter will look like. There was a fountain shown in rendering posted here before, which isn’t as unique as this will be, whatever the final product looks like.

http://www.sftod.com Jeremiah Schaub

I understand the logs were being cut to size onsite, I still just think they’re too big. And my comment was only in relation to the story, not to the actual project. Construction photos always look messy. Please don’t take comments on blogs so personally.

Distorto Blotto

Hey Steve, Someone pee in your grapenuts this morning? This projact is half assed at best.

Why is it people like you that push their agenda’s have to automaticly term others as being negative when they do not agree?

Maybe you would like to discuss this with the neighbor that has already had a couple of grand worth of damage performed on his home by a hit and run driver because of this fiasco.

Go blow smoke up someone elses backside!

Robert West

Have a name for the park yet? How about Tin Can Alley?

http://att.net david

was walking by and asked a gentleman walking out of a house nearby what was going on. he said it just appeared and no one consulted any on in the area about the project.

http://www.livablestreets.com/people/AP AP

@David. Not quite true. There was a community meeting at which at least 40 people attended about six weeks before the plaza was constructed. The neighborhood was posted about a week before that. All the properties around the space had invitations taped to their doors. Also, this site was recommended as an open space improvement in a plan commissioned by the neighborhood in 2004.

steve

Drove by to take a look earlier this week, and I completely retract my earlier post! Doesn’t even look like a neighborhood park, more like a city public works storage yard. The stainless steel planters don’t seem to have anything to do with the Eucalyptus logs, which don’t appear to have been cut down on-site at all. The right turn should have been after the bulb out to slow down cars. The planters will just hide pedestrians stepping out across the street.

Good luck to nearby neighbors getting the city to redo this mess. Maybe the planters can be salvaged and re-arranged, but I’d like to see the traffic flow reworked, maybe a one-way right turn from San Jose onto Guerrero, and more pavement removed so trees could be planted in solid ground. Again, sorry for my earlier comments, no pee in my grapenuts this morning!

momma23monkeys

SO NOT TRUE! I know of at least 7 neighbors that were left out (intentionally?) of any part of the planning. I don’t know who’s doors they taped their “invitations” to but it wasn’t on any of ours and please forgive me for not stopping to read every pole on the street for information as to what’s going on right in front of my house. Silly me for thinking that anyone would bother to inform those of us that this “PARK” directly affects as to what’s going on right in front of our homes. Goes to show you how anyone can come to your neighborhood, decide what would be best for you and do it with you none the wiser.

MY WINDOW IS VISIBLE WITHIN THE DOCUMENTED PICTURES OF THIS ARTICLE. I RECALL YOUNG PEOPLE ON LOCATION OF THE INTERSECTION, ARMED WITH CLIPBOARDS & PENS-
I WAS NEVER ASKED PERSONALLY NOR INFORMED RECEIVED OR OBSERVED THESE SO CALLED POSTED “INVITATIONS” IMPLEMENTED…..
THIS IS AN ISSUE THAT UNDERLINES THE SEMANTICS BEHIND THE MOVES CONSTRUCTED BY POLITICS, GIVING RECORD OF POSITIVE EFFORT SANDWICHED THIN AMONG DISHONEST CHESS PLAY. TODAY I TOOK HEED TO A NOTICE TO CUT DOWN A TREE ACROSS FROM THEIR POOR ATTEMPT OF PARK BIRTH…..
THIS PISSES ME OFF…I’M TAKING A STAND.